Barracks Observation | A Military Medal of Merit — Who Exactly Should Receive It?

Making Good Use of the "Baton" of Commendation and Awards

How much does a military medal of merit weigh? For the individual, it is an honor; for the unit, it is a form of guidance.

Commendation and awards — on the surface, the question is who receives them; at a deeper level, the question is where this "baton" leads officers and soldiers. Award seniority, and people will naturally keep score by years of service; award for the sake of balance, and people will naturally jockey for quota slots; award for actual performance, and officers and soldiers will focus on the training ground and exert themselves toward combat effectiveness. For grassroots units, clearly establishing the orientation of "rewarding the excellent and employing the strong" (奖优用强) comes down to raising the combat effectiveness standard, putting it into practice, and ensuring that capable people have honor, a platform, and responsibility.

The clearer the orientation, the more necessary it is to guard against oversimplification. "Rewarding the excellent" cannot be reduced to rewarding only competition rankings, nor can "employing the strong" be understood as a cure-all. Contributions to combat effectiveness are reflected not only in winning gold and silver on the competition field, but also in providing critical support during major missions, sustained breakthroughs in daily training, and the silent underpinning of system-wide operations. Only by looking at individual results, positional contributions, the effect of setting an example, and the recognition of one's peers together can we avoid a simplistic "medal-only theory" and truly pin the medal of merit on the chest of the person who deserves it.

After rewarding the excellent, one must also employ the strong. If training standouts remain only on the commendation stage, the guidance effect is easily diluted; if competition backbone personnel are satisfied merely with being strong themselves, individual experience is difficult to convert into collective capability. Inviting standouts to serve as coaches, letting backbone personnel lead research topics, and pressing more responsibility onto advanced individuals — only then can "one person standing out" become "a group of people competing to be first," and individual glory become an overall leap forward.

Orientation cannot remain at the level of slogans; it must also be underpinned by institutional mechanisms. Who should be rewarded, and on what basis? After receiving an award, how should the person be employed, and what are the responsibilities? How well they are employed — how is that tracked and evaluated? Building a file on training results, incorporating mentoring effectiveness into performance evaluations, and creating a closed loop for post-award utilization — only then can officers and soldiers believe: effort gets a response, actual performance gets recognition, and ability has a place.

The combat effectiveness standard is not abstract; it must ultimately be realized in every evaluation, every personnel decision, and every training session. Establish hard standards as hard rules, focus honor toward the combat position, open positions to the capable, and use responsibility to press standouts harder — only then will the intrinsic motivation for training and war preparation flow forth in full.

A Military Medal of Merit — Who Exactly Should Receive It?

— A News Investigation into a Certain Brigade of the 83rd Group Army Clearly Establishing the Orientation of "Rewarding the Excellent and Employing the Strong"

■ Zhou Yingbo, Zhao Yibo, Sun Tong

Not long ago, the 83rd Group Army's "Central Plains Iron Fist" (中原铁拳) record-breaking competition concluded. Corporal Li Yanfeng of a certain brigade completed six consecutive events — a 5,000-meter run, rope climb, 400-meter obstacle course, battlefield strength combination, casualty carry, and 1,000-meter run — in 35 minutes and 27 seconds, taking first place.

This year, training standouts have emerged in rapid succession in the brigade: Corporal Pu Junkan of the reconnaissance battalion broke the Group Army's 400-meter obstacle course record with a time of 1 minute and 26 seconds, taking first place; Sergeant Pu Jun of a combined-arms battalion placed second in the Group Army's "individual assault" competition; Staff Officer Zhou Chuanhan of the operational support section placed second in a higher-echelon staff officer competition…

What drove this change? In interviews, many officers and soldiers pointed to the brigade's clear orientation in recent years on commendation, awards, and personnel selection: "Whoever contributes the most, achieves the hardest results, and plays the most obvious role in training and war preparation gets recognized; whoever has real ability and can fight gets the stage and gets the burden."

"A military medal of merit — who receives it and why it is awarded may look like a single commendation, but it actually relates to a unit's value coordinates," the brigade's leadership said. In recent years, the brigade Party committee has consistently used contribution rate to combat effectiveness as an important yardstick for commendation and awards, personnel selection, and backbone development. When recommending candidates for commendation, it has consistently placed training results, mission performance, and contribution to winning in a prominent position, ensuring that honor truly focuses on the front line of training and war preparation.

Honor and Commendation Are Not Candy to Be Handed Out — Hard Standards Must Be Established

At the end of last year, a piece of news drew the attention of the entire brigade: Staff Officer Wu Congcong of the operations and training section, who had been awarded an individual second-class merit citation the year before last, was awarded an individual second-class merit citation again, and was simultaneously appointed as a company commander of an armored assault vehicle company.

Why did one person get all the good things? The story begins with two competitions.

In November 2024, Wu Congcong led a team in the Group Army's "Outstanding Staff Officer Evaluation," winning second place individually and first place as a team, and was awarded an individual second-class merit citation at year's end.

In May of last year, he competed again in the Group Army's "Central Plains Iron Fist" record-breaking competition, winning first place in the individual comprehensive category of "planning and calculation for decisive victory" (谋算智胜). When commendation and awards were deliberated at year's end, Wu Congcong's name again entered the recommendation list. When the news spread, discussion followed.

Some said Wu Congcong had already received a second-class merit citation last year, so a third-class citation would suffice; some said he was still young and would have future opportunities to earn merit, so he should "give way" to other comrades; others said he deserved a second-class citation — military honor and commendation must not be muddled, and whatever the contribution, that is the citation it warrants.

"Honor and commendation are not candy to be handed out however one pleases. Whoever wins a competition gets a citation; whoever breaks a Group Army competition record gets a higher citation. Awards must not simply look at years of service, seniority, or balance — they must look at training results, mission contributions, and incremental gains in combat effectiveness." On this point, the brigade Party committee's position was unambiguous. In conjunction with the annual commendation matters, it organized officers and soldiers throughout the brigade to hold discussions, aiming to clear up the fog of thinking.

Through discussion, the view that "contribution rate to combat effectiveness is the hard standard" quickly formed a consensus. In the end, Wu Congcong was awarded an individual second-class merit citation again.

Consecutive merit citations are not an isolated case in this brigade. The experience of Corporal Yang Yunpeng, squad leader of the information support team, also made a deep impression on officers and soldiers.

In 2024, Yang Yunpeng participated in a Group Army record-breaking competition for the first time and, due to outstanding results, was awarded an individual third-class merit citation.

Not resting on her laurels, Yang Yunpeng set higher goals for herself, breaking down each training event item by item and precisely filling in her gaps. During that period, her figure could often be seen on the training ground doing extra sessions. Last year, she participated in the Group Army record-breaking competition again, again achieved outstanding results, and was awarded an individual second-class merit citation.

What impressed everyone even more was that Yang Yunpeng did not treat the honor as a personal halo, but instead brought her training experience back to her squad. During daily training, Yang Yunpeng helped her comrades draw up plans, break down events, and address weaknesses item by item.

"If you want to stand on the awards platform, you first have to endure on the training ground," Yang Yunpeng told her comrades. Under her lead, last year, Private Yang Xiaoqing from the same squad also achieved outstanding results in the record-breaking competition and was awarded an individual third-class merit citation.

"Standing at the front on the strength of your ability — that earns respect," everyone said when speaking of the young officers and soldiers who have "risen to the top" in recent years.

Today, officers and soldiers in the brigade firmly believe that "effort gets a response, actual performance gets recognition, and ability has a place." Gradually, in the headquarters building, more people are studying skills in their spare time; on the training ground, more people are conducting after-action reviews and filling in gaps after assessments…

A medal of merit illuminates not only an individual's moment in the spotlight, but also the direction of a soldier's charge.

Dare to Reward and Be Good at Employing — All Competition Standouts Move to the Front Line of Organizing Training

Once the honors are handed down, the work is not finished.

"Recognizing training standouts is only the first step; we must also make good use of them and build the team well," said the brigade's Chief of Staff Li.

In recent years, the brigade has gradually formed a clear chain: "Achieve results in training, the organization gives honor; honor is given, the position gives a platform; the platform is built, responsibility is then pressed down; responsibility is pressed down, a large group is brought along."

"A blade is sharpened on stone; a person is tempered through tasks — only by daring to press responsibility can young cadres be forged." At the beginning of 2025, the important task of selecting personnel for the Group Army's "two-event competition" fell to Wu Congcong, who was responsible for the entire process of selecting personnel, providing guidance, and sending the team to training.

The Party committee leadership's position was clear: Wu Congcong has ranked at the top in competitions at all levels every year, his professional ability is solid, and his training methods are distinctive — he is the natural choice as "chief instructor" (武教头).

Wu Congcong has one signature skill: when doing hand-drawn map plotting, he can complete multiple types of annotations and symbols in a single pass using red and blue pencils, without needing repeated corrections.

He shared his training videos and draft papers with everyone, letting them see how he practiced stroke by stroke — to improve the accuracy of annotations and symbols, he categorized common symbols, annotation positions, and line directions, and repeatedly trained under timed conditions… Over four years, the draft paper he has used alone, stacked up, stands one meter high.

"Practice makes perfect," Wu Congcong said. Under his lead, officers and soldiers practiced hard and refined their skills step by step, their abilities growing day by day. That year, Wu Congcong led the team twice to Group Army-organized staff officer training sessions; of the brigade's 10 participants, 6 placed in the Group Army's top ten, winning 2 first-place finishes in staff officer training; in the Group Army-organized record-breaking competition, the brigade won 9 first-place and 4 third-place finishes.

"When officers and soldiers look at standouts, they cannot only see the results; standouts must be made to lay out their training process openly, so that everyone sees the gap and knows how to close it." In this brigade, competition standouts return with their honors and all move to the front line of organizing training.

Senior Sergeant (Second Class) Zhou Zihan is one of them. In 2025, he performed outstandingly in the Group Army's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) specialty competition and was awarded an individual third-class merit citation. Afterward, the brigade appointed him as a UAV event training instructor to mentor new pilots.

"Look here — the turning radius is too wide; by the time the target is spotted, you're already half a beat behind. Here, the delivery angle is off, which means the pre-delivery stabilization and control wasn't precise enough…" After each training session, Zhou Zihan pulls up everyone's training footage, reviews it frame by frame, and patiently answers practical questions such as "target identification and preventing misidentification," "timing of delivery," and "low-altitude crosswind resistance."

Dare to reward and be good at employing. This reporter learned that the brigade has continuously optimized the allocation of training resources and is vigorously building a "standout incubation" mechanism, establishing regular platforms such as "standout experience exchange sessions" and "specialty skills challenge competitions," giving training standouts more opportunities for advanced study and tempering.

Making training standouts truly "valued" cannot be reflected only in medals and certificates — it must be realized in positions, platforms, and responsibilities. The brigade has summarized: only by giving those who can fight their rightful positions, allowing those who know how to fight to fully apply their talents, and letting the standard of genuine combat readiness take root will the guidance of honor be converted into real, tangible incremental gains in combat effectiveness.

From "Momentary Glory" to "Long-Term Martial Excellence" — Continuously Releasing the Incentive Effect

"A clear orientation does not mean simple operation; rewarding the excellent and employing the strong is most valuable when sustained and deepened," the brigade's leadership stated. The clearer the orientation, the more it requires institutional mechanisms to guarantee it, so that officers and soldiers know where the standards are, how the procedures work, how honors are evaluated, and how backbone personnel are employed.

To this end, the brigade has explored establishing a dynamic cultivation mechanism for training standouts, building categorized growth files for officers and soldiers who perform outstandingly in higher-echelon competitions, major exercises and training, specialty training sessions, and daily training. The files record not only rankings and awards, but also positional performance, organizing and mentoring training, mission performance, and peer evaluations.

"You cannot only look at the moment on the awards platform; you must also look at how they perform at their combat position day to day and how effectively they bring along those around them," said Zhu Yangchun, chief of the organization section.

During one deliberation on commendation candidates, a grassroots battalion and company recommended a technical backbone who had long been responsible for equipment support breakthroughs and had resolved malfunctions multiple times during major exercises and training. At first, some felt that without a prominent competition ranking, the grounds for recommendation were not "hard" enough. But reviewing the growth file revealed that this person had solved multiple difficult training support problems and had played a key role in critical missions on multiple occasions. In the end, this technical backbone was placed on the candidate list.

This incident led many officers and soldiers to understand: contribution to combat effectiveness is not measured only by winning competitions — it also looks at combat position responsibility, mission performance, and system-wide contribution.

To avoid the pattern of "receive an award once, coast on it for a long time," the brigade has also made follow-on evaluation a continuous thread. After competition backbone personnel return to their positions, the evaluation looks not only at whether their individual results are maintained, but also at whether those they mentor are improving, whether the results of their squad or team are rising, and whether the tasks they undertake are solid. Those who perform outstandingly continue to receive more responsibility and platforms; those whose standards slip or whose drive slackens are promptly reminded and assisted.

"Rewarding the excellent and employing the strong requires both the courage to reward and employ, and genuine management and strict discipline," the brigade's leadership said.

The refinement of institutional mechanisms has made grassroots officers and soldiers' expectations regarding honor clearer. Today, on the brigade's training grounds, officers and soldiers are concerned not only with who received an award or earned a merit citation, but also with how those individuals trained to get there, where the organization has placed them to be tested, and whom they have brought along in their progress.

The light of a medal of merit can only continuously release its incentive effect when it shines into institutions, into positions, and into daily training. The brigade's practice demonstrates: establishing the clear orientation of "rewarding the excellent and employing the strong" requires not only the courage, at critical moments, to give honor to those who deserve it, but also reliance on regular mechanisms to put outstanding talent to use, manage them, and bring them along, so that the combat effectiveness standard takes root on the training ground and at the combat position.

The Barracks Observation Section Editor in Dialogue with the Commander of a Certain Brigade of the 83rd Group Army

Captain Wu Congcong of a certain brigade of the 83rd Group Army earned individual second-class merit citations two consecutive years, sparking heated discussion among officers and soldiers. From the initial controversy of "should he really receive another merit citation" to the eventual consensus that "contribution rate to combat effectiveness is the hard standard" — this is a vivid example of a grassroots unit insisting on awarding for the sake of war-fighting and firmly establishing combat effectiveness as the one and only fundamental standard. Around this topic, the Barracks Observation section editor held a connected exchange with the brigade commander.

Editor: We noted that Wu Congcong's consecutive merit citations initially sparked discussion among both headquarters staff and grassroots personnel. In your view, what impact did this discussion have on the thinking of officers and soldiers?

Brigade Commander: On the surface, it was a discussion about what level of merit citation Wu Congcong should receive; in substance, it was a profound ideological clash over the "combat effectiveness standard." We often say we must establish the combat effectiveness standard, but where is it "established"? How is it "established"? Many comrades were actually not entirely clear on this. In the course of investigation and inquiry, we found that some comrades still harbored, at a subconscious level, old notions of "balancing considerations" and "seniority-based rotation," feeling that commendation and awards were like handing out candy — everyone should get some, and it should rotate in turn. This thinking itself is a reflection of the peacetime malaise (和平积弊) in the realm of honor and commendation. What is honor? Honor is recognition of contribution — not consolation for seniority, and certainly not a chip to be used for achieving balance. The Wu Congcong matter was like a mirror, revealing that in some comrades' minds the "combat effectiveness standard" was not yet firmly established. If the logic of "rotating in turn" were to prevail, the hard standard of "contribution rate to combat effectiveness" would be hollowed out. By putting the problem on the table through discussion and exchange, arguing it through and thinking it through clearly, we made the combat effectiveness standard a hard rule that everyone recognizes and must follow.

Editor: We see that while Wu Congcong received consecutive merit citations, the brigade Party committee also appointed him as a company commander, concentrating honor and position in one person in a short period of time. What was the brigade Party committee's thinking?

Brigade Commander: We wanted to send a signal: people with genuine combat ability are not only "valued" in terms of honor — they also have real prospects in their careers. We want to use this concrete action to run the combat effectiveness standard through the entire chain of talent cultivation, selection, and appointment, so that cadres and backbone personnel with outstanding results in training and war preparation have a stage and a position; and at the same time to use honor and commendation as a demonstration and guide, to correct the orientation of personnel use, so that all officers and soldiers can see that "combat talent" will be entrusted with important responsibilities and placed in positions where their strengths can be brought into play.

Editor: From Wu Congcong earning second-class merit citations two consecutive years, to the current "martial excellence effect" (精武效应) of dozens of people across the brigade proactively applying to compete and everyone striving to be a standout — what work still needs to be done to sustain this momentum?

Brigade Commander: To make the orientation of "contribution rate to combat effectiveness" take root, we are doing two things: First, exploring and refining the honor incentive mechanism, adhering to the principle of "train hard in whatever fighting requires, and specialize intensively in whatever the unit lacks most," so that officers and soldiers who shoulder heavy responsibilities at their combat positions and achieve real results in missions become the primary subjects of commendation and awards, and so that "standing on the strength of one's ability and advancing on the strength of actual performance" becomes a value identity and a behavioral reflex; second, building a "standout incubation" mechanism, so that gold-medal instructors share experience and impart skills, and so that training standouts are not only strong themselves but can also bring a whole group of people along to be strong, truly converting the talent advantage into a capability advantage and a decisive advantage.

In the height of summer, darkness falls a little later. On the main road of a certain brigade of the 83rd Group Army's garrison area, the light boxes come on right on schedule. Photographs and brief profiles of training standouts stand out prominently.

After dinner, Squad Leader Bai Xinyu walked along the main road with several new soldiers.

On a light box by the road, the words "individual second-class merit citation two consecutive years" caught the new soldiers' attention.

"Squad leader, he's only been in the unit a few years — how did he earn individual second-class merit citations two years in a row?" asked new soldier Jiao Jian.

"Commander Wu won first place in Group Army competitions two years running. In our brigade, merit citations and awards don't look at who has the most years of service — they only look at who has the strongest ability and the greatest contribution."

Jiao Jian stared at the photograph on the light box for a long time. That evening, he wrote in his diary: "I also want my photograph to be up there someday."

In the training that followed, Bai Xinyu noticed that the new soldiers had changed. When event training ended, they no longer returned to the back of the formation to rest as before; some sought out the squad's backbone personnel to ask about technique essentials, some made plans to work on their weak points together after dinner…

"When they first arrived at the company, they were mostly just thinking about keeping up with the pace," said one backbone soldier responsible for leading troops. "Now they have something to strive for in their hearts, and they're more willing to push forward in training."

From the light boxes to the training ground, honor is not a halo hanging in the distance but a measuring stick standing nearby; the advanced are not names beyond reach but a direction that can be compared against and pursued. For newly arrived comrades, those light boxes are like silent lessons in education. If "standing on the strength of one's ability and advancing on the strength of actual performance" is to become a value identity and a behavioral reflex, the first step is to plant a seed of "striving to be first" at the very beginning of their soldier's journey (兵之初).

As night deepened, the garrison's light boxes grew brighter. When officers and soldiers passed by, their steps would involuntarily slow. Lit up alongside the light boxes were the goals in their hearts.